The Church and the World
Revelation 8.2-14.20
The seven trumpets announce the beginning of a series of judgments on the wicked world for its rebellion against God, rejection of Christ, and persecution of the Saints. It helps to look at the trumpets in reverse order, beginning with the seventh trumpet, which announces the exaltation of Christ and then unveils the cosmic enemies who oppose Christ. When we look back at the first six trumpets, we discover the reason for God’s wrath: the world has joined Satan in his rebellion and opposition to Christ. God responds to this evil in the world with a series of judgments. The trumpets announce these judgments as they fall upon the earth.
Satan has been cast down to the earth and cannot directly assault God or Christ in heaven. So, Satan’s strategy is to pursue the people of God in the world. The enemies of God and Christ are also opponents of the people of God. A great, cosmic conflict that began in heaven has spilled over into the earthly regions. Satan has failed and has been defeated by Christ, but that only makes him a more dangerous enemy for the saints who are still in the world. The people of God can defeat Satan, but not because of their own power or wisdom. The saints are being made aware, not only of their Enemy’s existence, but also of his schemes, or how he intends to carry out his war.
The Dragon calls up two allies to help him in his war against the saints. These allies are beasts, which identifies them as enemies with hostile and violent intentions. The first beast probably represents Satan’s use of corrupt government to recruit the people of the world and to violently persecute the saints.
The second beast probably represents the use of false religion to delude the inhabitants of the world and cause them to oppose the saints. Satan’s cosmic war has come to earth and he is now working through people to oppose the people of God.
We do not ultimately fight flesh and blood, but Satan does use people to do his will in the world. Satan has successfully enlisted the world’s help in his war on the saints. The book of Revelation is showing us two of the main strategies Satan has used for recruiting the people of this world to serve his agenda. Working either through brute force or through delusion, these two beasts have been very effective in the world. We have already seen the cosmic actors in this great struggle. Now we get to see some revelations of the human actors in the struggle.
Satan is a spiritual being and the only way he can attack the saints in the world is to seek a physical way of manifesting his will and agenda. Satan has his people in the world just like God has people who belong to Him. There are two groups of people in the world: one group follows the Lamb and the other groups serves the Dragon. These two groups of people are very different from each other and can never be in fellowship, just as the Lamb and the Dragon are also opposed one to the other. We will see in these visions that the main purpose of the people who follow the Lamb is to give a witness to the world. The main activity of those who serve the Dragon is to oppose and persecute those who follow the Lamb. Collectively, and for brevity or clarity, we can call the people following the Lamb “the Church” and those serving the Dragon “the World”. These perspectives show us how very different the Church is from the World and the perpetual, spiritual conflict that these two societies of people represent. This difference is not traced back to the people themselves but is due to their spiritual origins.
Obviously, the book of Revelation was given to the people of God and not to the people of the world. The message of this book is to prepare the saints for hardship in the world, even for suffering and persecution. God’s people should not be surprised or even alarmed when they feel the opposition of the unbelieving world. Our situation is being revealed so that we will understand and know what to expect. Anyone who becomes a Christian and expects everything after that to be smooth sailing has been deceived and will probably fall away during the times of trial. Additionally, the people of God need to be able to identify the sources of the opposition. We need to know where the attacks are going to come from so we will not be caught by surprise or confused. The most important reason for these visions, as far as the Saints are concerned, is so that we will endure whatever hardships we face in the world, remain completely faithful to Christ, and refuse to compromise our witness.
Before we continue, we must go back and consider one more revelation about the nature of the World that comes from the trumpet judgments. A very important summary statement in this section comes at the end of the sixth trumpet judgment:
“The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts” (Rev. 9.20-21).
Here we see not only that the World deserves God judgment, but that the nature of the World cannot be changed or redeemed. Even God’s plagues do not bring about the repentance of the wicked. “The sun melts wax, but hardens clay.” The World Order is destined for destruction and anyone who does not want to go with it must leave it as Lot had to get out of Sodom, Israel had to exit Egypt, and the captives of Judah had to be brought home from exile in Babylon.
A Personal Perspective of the Church and the World (10.1-11)
The first perspective of the Church and the World is personal and concerns John himself and his ministry. John sees a powerful angel come down from heaven with a little book in his hand. The book reminds us of the sealed scroll in the earlier chapters of Revelation, but this little book is open in the angel’s hand and is not sealed. Some commentators have made the case that the sealed scroll that the and this little scroll is one and the same, but this is probably not the best way to understand this passage. John hears something that he is not allowed to write down and reveal, but he is then told to give his attention to the contents of this little book and is given a rather surprising command:
“Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. So, I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth, it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter (Rev. 10.8-10).
The prophet Ezekiel was given the command to eat a scroll at the beginning of his prophetic ministry (Ezek. 2.8). John is also a prophet who was sent to the people of God and has much in common with Ezekiel and his situation. John is exiled to Patmos as Ezekiel was an exile in Babylon. The people of God in the world are much like the exiles of Judah in Babylon. God promised Israel through the prophet Ezekiel that Babylon would be judged and the people would be restored to the Promised Land. In the same way, John prophesies about the judgment of the world order and the entrance of the people of God into the promised land of the New Creation. God’s people are still exiles in the World, which is our Babylon. As exiles in the world, there are certain realities we must face about our present situation.
The scroll that Ezekiel was commanded to eat and the little book that John had to eat represents the Word of God that each prophet was supposed to ingest and then deliver to the people of God. But John’s experience after eating this little book was both sweetness and bitterness. (There is no doubt that the prophet Ezekiel also experienced the bitterness in his ministry since Israel mostly ignored his message.) This sweetness and bitterness is not just John’s personal experience but is in some way the experience of every child of God in the world.
When we first begin to ingest the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ, there is an immediate sweetness. We learn that our sins have been forgiven and that we are children of God with access to His Throne of Grace. We find that we are part of the Family of God. We have a new purpose and meaning in life as we walk with Jesus each day and learn to pray to our Heavenly Father for all our earthly needs. We also have the hope of heaven and eternal life with the Lord when this life is done. The Christian life is wonderful and new converts are often filled with joy at the sweetness of this new experience.
But this is not all there is to the Christian life. Very soon we come to experience something else that is not so pleasant. There is also a bitterness that comes from being a Christian in a world that is opposed to God and to Christ. We find that there are people who hate us and shun our presence. Some of these people may have once been our friends or even members of our family. We want to share our joy with others and tell them about our experience with Christ, but we find that most people are not willing to listen to us and they may even mock and make fun. The reaction of the World is sometimes even more severe and Christians often face violent persecution and deprivation.
It is sweet to know that our sins have been forgiven, but it is bitterness for us to see many people around us continuing in their sin, refusing the offer of God’s forgiveness in Christ, and heading toward destruction. We begin to see why Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem. Jesus Himself experienced this bitterness when He saw people refusing to listen to God and heading toward destruction and judgment. The Saints experience the bitterness of seeing the entire World around them heading toward judgment and rejecting the only thing that could save them.
It is tempting at this point for us to try to mitigate this bitterness or to avoid it somehow. We have a responsibility to share the Word of God with people in the World, but since we know they will probably reject it and then reject us, it is tempting for us to simply shut down and stop witnessing altogether. Or, we only focus on speaking those aspects of the Word of God that will not offend the people of the World and so avoid some of the bitterness and rejection.
Many people who experience the sweetness of the Word of God at first, later fall away when they begin to experience some of the bitterness of the World’s rejection and disapproval. But if we are going to follow the Lamb, we must accept both the sweet and the bitter. We cannot avoid the World’s rejection by hiding our witness or by softening the message about sin and judgment to win the World’s favor. We must continue speaking the Word even when the World refuses to listen.
If we are not willing to accept the bitterness then we are not worthy of being Christ’s disciples. Remember that Jesus had to swallow the bitterness of the Cross when He came into the World and He told us to take up our cross and follow Him. Following Jesus in this wicked World will be both sweet and bitter. That was John’s personal experience and this will also be the personal experience of every Christian until our bitter tears are wiped away forever by the Lord.
A Corporate Perspective of the Church and the World (11.1-14)
The next perspective moves us from personal experience to a corporate experience. The vision that John saw is about two mysterious witnesses: “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth” (11.3-4). It is a mistake to try to identify these two witnesses as if they are specific persons. These two witnesses probably represent the witness of the entire Church in the World, from the beginning of the Church at Pentecost to the end of the Age. The Church will be in the World as a witness, constantly warning the World about God’s judgment and calling for repentance. God will always maintain a witness in the World. There are two witnesses to establish a legitimate testimony. According to the Law of Moses, testimony must be established by two witnesses. Some expositors have posited that these two witnesses might represent the Law and the Gospel, which together constitute a complete witness to the World.
The imagery for these two witnesses comes from the Old Testament prophet Zechariah:
And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left” (Zech. 4.1-3).
The dual images of a lampstand with an olive tree is a picture of sources of light with a constant supply of oil so that it never will go out. The witness of the Church in the World is like a lamp that cannot be extinguished because it has a constant supply from Heaven. This is a God-ordained and supported witness in the world that cannot fail. When the Church is faithfully witnessing, it is given Divine power and resources and is unstoppable! The witness of the Church cannot be stopped by the World until God deems that it is done.
But the World is always trying to silence the witness of the Church. And there have been times and places where it looks like the World is successful and the witness of the Church has been snuffed out, just like it looked like the life of Jesus had been ended at the Cross:
“And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11.7-8).
Sodom, Egypt, and later Babylon, are all Biblical symbols for the wicked World order, the rebellious City of Man, that is opposed to God and to His people. And the City of Man has always been especially opposed to God’s message of sin and the need for repentance. The witnesses of God torment the City of Man with a message they do not want to hear. So, the World simply kills the messengers.
But there is a promise in this vision that the World will never be able to completely eradicate the Church and Her witness:
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months” (Rev. 11.1-2).
There is a subtle reference here to another of Ezekiel’s visions. At the end of his book, Ezekiel is taken on a journey by an angel who measures the size of a new temple (Ezek. 40-48). The holy city of Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed by Babylon. But this vision was a way of giving hope to the people of Judah in their captivity that they would not be destroyed but had the hope of restoration. In the same way, as the Church is exiled in the Babylon of this present, evil World, there is the promise from God that it will never be destroyed. God will always have His remnant of faithful witnesses.
Just when it looks like the Church’s witness is snuffed out, God brings it back to life! There is something like this that happened during the Protestant Reformation. Before the end of the world, it may be that the witness of the Church will appear to be all but silenced. “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” This vision is communicating to the Church the hostility of the World and the need for faithfulness. The Church must remain a faithful witness in a hostile World that does not want to hear the Word of God. Be faithful even unto death!
A Heavenly Perspective of the Church and the World (14.1-5)
The next perspective is a heavenly contrast between the people of God and the World. We see a group of people who are completely different from those of the World. These images of the Redeemed contrast with the followers of the Dragon and his two beasts. The World worships the beast and serves the Dragon (13.4, 8). The Redeemed sing a new song (14.3) and they follow the Lamb wherever He goes (14.4). (Learning a singing a new son is a picture of conversion from the World to the Kingdom of God. We used to sing the World’s song, but now we sing a new song we learn from the Lamb!) The World bears the mark of the beast upon them (13.16). The Redeemed have their Father’s name on their foreheads (14.1). The Redeemed are pure and undefiled, in contrast to the World (14.4-5).
The Redeemed are not going to be a secret society in the world, but are meant to be a visible counter-culture and witness to the World Order. Jesus said the Church would be the light of the World, like a city set on a hill it would be visible and visibly different. The witness of the Church in the world would not be only in preaching the message of the Gospel but by simply being visibly different from the World Order. If the Church ever becomes like the world around it then it has lost its usefulness, just as salt that is not salty must be thrown away. This vision in Revelation is a lasting challenge to the Church in every Age to maintain its distinction from the World. Not only is it possible for the Church to remain pure in a defiled world, this purity and separation are vital to the Church’s identity as the people of God. If there is no difference and no distinction between the people of God and the people of the World, then the whole purpose of redemption becomes thwarted and any claim the Church makes to belonging to God is void. The Church is a visible sign of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. God’s people are to be a holy society that brings a little breath of heaven to earth and points the world toward the future fullness of Christ’s reign. If God’s will does not reign supreme in the Church, then it is exactly like the World Order, which is also in rebellion against the will of God. Obviously, the World Order is going to pressure the Church to compromise its position and God’s people must constantly refuse to give in to the pressure to conform to the ways of the World.
This is a heavenly view of the Redeemed, not as they appear to the earth. The people of God have a kind of double identity and they occupy two different realms at the same time. The people of God have been redeemed from out of the earth, yet they are standing on the heavenly Mt. Zion. The redeemed are seated with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2.6). This vision is not of the future of the saints in Heaven. This is what the Saints are now from a heavenly point of view.
Redemption is effective even in the middle of Satan’s war on the earth. This is due to the victory of Christ and His exaltation into Heaven. Satan’s war will fail to interrupt God’s purpose of redemption. In fact, redemption would be worked out in the context of evil and conflict. So, Satan is still serving the higher purpose of God even as he goes about his evil business in the world. All the glory for extracting the Redeemed from Satan’s kingdom must go to God.
Here we are seeing that there are two communities of people in the earth. There is now a choice presented concerning which community to belong to and if we will worship the beast or follow the Lamb. The vision shows that there is an alternative to being part of Satan’s kingdom. The only way to escape the evil of the World is to follow the Lamb. There is salvation in no one else.
The salvation that God offers is from out of a community that is destined for judgment and a World Order that is destined for destruction. The Redeemed will endure but the Dragon and his kingdom will eventually be destroyed completely. The Redeemed can look forward to an eternal home in the New Creation, but the people of this world will eventually be left eternally homeless and bereaved.
A Future Perspective of the Church and the World (14.14-20)
The next perspective of the Church and the World projects out into the future, all the way to the end. There are two harvests in this vision: one harvest is for the righteous and the other harvest is of the wicked.
These two different societies in the world have very different destinies: one is destined for wrath and the other for salvation. One community will be gathered in, while the other will be cast out. One group of people is useful to God, while the other is wasted. A harvest is an image in Scripture for both salvation and for judgment, and both kinds of harvest are pictured here in Revelation.
Jesus taught in His parables about the Kingdom of God that there will be two harvests at the end of the Age. One such parable that is helpful here to explain this vision in Revelation is Jesus’ parable of the Wheat and the Tares. In the parable, there was a man who planted a field with wheat. While it was night, an enemy came in and sowed tares, a type of weed, in among the wheat to ruin the field. When the two plants began to grow, the wheat and the tares were all mixed together in the same field. The servants of the owner of the field wanted to immediately take the tares out, but the owner would not allow this because the wheat would also be uprooted. The two plants would be allowed to grow in the same field together until the time of harvest when they would be separated. The wheat would be gathered into the owner’s barn, but the tares would be burned. Here is Jesus’ interpretation of the parable:
“The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear” (Matt. 13.38-43).
The world is like a field where something has been planted and is growing in view of a harvest. The whole point of this world is to grow the people of God. The children of the Devil are imposters. The righteous are sons of God that He planted in the world. The wicked are the sons of the Evil One that he planted in his attempt to ruin God’s plans. The point of this parable is that good and evil must exist together in the world until the time of the end. Jesus probably told this parable because the Jews thought that when the Kingdom of God came, all evil would be completely uprooted from the world. But this would not happen immediately. God’s people would have to continue growing in the world in the presence of evil. Until the time for the harvest is here, it is not wise to do any uprooting because this will disturb God’s purpose for His children while they are still in the world. In some way, the presence of evil is necessary for the growth and maturity of God’s people.
From the standpoint of the end, the identity of the righteous and the wicked appear to be certain and fixed. But on this side of eternity, in the confines of time, the harvest is still in a process of developing and we do not always know which harvest a person belongs to. So, we judge nothing until the time comes for the harvest. In the meantime, there is a harvest going on as the fields of the earth are white unto harvest for the Gospel. This is the harvest the Church is currently to be focused on gathering. Executing the final harvests is not our concern.
The harvest of the vine of the earth and its destruction is certainly an image of judgment in this vision (14.17-20). This vine of the earth is a useless vine that does not produce the kind of fruit that God is looking for. In contrast to this vine of the earth is Jesus, who is the true vine. We must be connected to Jesus rather than to the World if we want to be pleasing to God. The vine of the earth is destined for the winepress of God’s wrath.
A Motivating Perspective of the Church and the World (14.6-13)
The final perspective of the Church and the World is a brief series of summary statements that are designed to motivate us to respond to what we have seen in these visions. There is a warning here to the wicked World Order and a message of encouragement to the people of God. The wicked must repent if they are to escape being judged. The Saints must endure the opposition from the World until death when they can then enter eternal rest. Death removes the Saints from danger permanently. But those who remain connected to the World are in danger of God’s wrath. There are three summary statements delivered by angels, an editorial comment by John, and then a final word given by an unidentified voice from Heaven. All these statements are meant to afflict the comfortable who are still a part of the World Order and to comfort the afflicted saints who suffer under the World’s opposition.
During this period, when the trumpet judgments are coming upon the World Order, the message of the Gospel is also being proclaimed throughout the earth. While the Gospel is ultimately good news to those who believe it, there is an aspect of the Gospel that is a warning. The World Order is like a house that has been condemned and is in the process of falling apart. The Gospel warns people to get out of that house before it collapses and is destroyed. The Trumpets are a time of partial judgments on the world. The sounds of the World’s collapse can already be seen and heard, but the end has not yet come and God’s mercy can also be experienced. But the time of mercy will not last forever.
The Gospel is a word of liberation from the World’s bondage and corruption. There is a way out if people will take it. Evil will eventually fall but no one must be destroyed by it.
The World Order, as ruled by the Dragon, is the enemy of mankind and detrimental to his eternal well-being. Satan brings only death and destruction, not life. God desires that all men be saved, but the World ruins men’s lives and damns their souls. The World Order is not friendly to man, it is a kind of spiritual bully that seeks to press its will on every person and bring them into subjection.
Eventually, the World Order, referred to here as Babylon for the first time in Revelation, will be judged and all those connected to Satan’s kingdom will experience the wrath of God, which will last for eternity. Here we have a clear statement about the eternal fate of the wicked. Those who are connected to the World Order may be comfortable and enjoying themselves now, but they will eventually be tormented and will never find rest again. The exact opposite is true of the Saints, who often are tormented by the World but will eventually enter eternal rest. The Saint’s suffering at the hands of the World will not be forgotten by Heaven and their sacrifices will not have been wasted. Worldly people are experiencing the best times they will ever have. The Saints who are in the world are experiencing the worst times they will ever have. The eternal state of each group will be eternally reserved, just as the rich man woke up and found himself in hell while Lazarus was carried to Abraham’s bosom. The last will be first and the first will end up being last!
The contrast between these two societies could not be made more explicit. One society is blessed while the other is under a curse. One group of people must repent while the other must endure. One kingdom is in the state of passing away while the other Kingdom is coming into its fullness. One Order is temporal and the other is eternal.
These summary statements not only wrap up this cycle, they also anticipate the final cycle of visions which reveal more about the coming demise and judgment of Babylon, the wicked City of Man, otherwise known as the World. Likewise, there will also be more revealed in the final section concerning the eternal rest and the reward that is in store for the people of God in the New Creation. One must be impressed by the absolute certainty of these visions. These are not vague guesses about what might happen. The future has already been determined by Heaven and is certain to come to pass. This means we can build our lives on these Divine absolutes and base our hope for the future on what has been revealed in these visions!
No comments:
Post a Comment